


Tactical Error

by omphale23



Category: Southland
Genre: M/M, Snippets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-14
Updated: 2010-03-14
Packaged: 2017-10-08 00:20:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omphale23/pseuds/omphale23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's the same guy he's always been. He goes out for beers, he buys a round, he goes home alone. What he does after that is his own damn business.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tactical Error

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spuffyduds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spuffyduds/gifts).



> For [](http://spuffyduds.livejournal.com/profile)[**spuffyduds**](http://spuffyduds.livejournal.com/) who is secretly evil and out to drive me completely mad.

It's nobody's business who he sleeps with. John doesn't talk about it, and nobody asks, and everybody's happy that way. He's the same guy he's always been. He goes out for beers, he buys a round, he goes home alone. What he does after that is his own damn business.

And then Ben Sherman comes along, and fucks the whole thing up.

It's not that Sherman's a bad kid, or that he's dumb. It's just that he's possibly the only cop on the force more socially inept than Charlie Crews--who John met once at a party and has avoided ever since, because there was something in that guy's eyes he didn't trust--not that it matters.

Just like Crews, Sherman knows that there are things people don't like to talk about, he recognizes that he's asking questions John doesn't want to answer.

It's just that he doesn't seem to care, and eventually John talks about Cesar because the other option is to knock Sherman unconscious with his own weapon just to get some peace and quiet.

That should be it. That's enough, it's more than anyone else has gotten since John's divorce, it's a hell of a lot more than Sherman has any right to expect. And so John's a little shocked to find himself inviting Sherman out for a drink, sitting across from him at the bar as they wait for Cesar to show up.

He doesn't know how this is supposed to work, but Sherman seems okay and by the time they're ready to order, he and Cesar are laughing about John's failures at landscaping and ordering another round. They get along like a house on fire, and John has just realized that he's made a serious tactical error.

It's going to be a very long night.


End file.
